Board of Adjustment delays decision on townhouses

By Eddie Fitzgerald, Sun Journal Staff

Published: Sunday, March 31, 2013 at 06:39 PM.

Once again, the New Bern Board of Adjustment called a special meeting for last Wednesday to hear an appeal about a proposed townhouse development at the corner of Board and East Front streets and failed to carry out the meeting.

The board first set a special meeting March 11 to conduct a public hearing on the appeal and called it off only hours before it was scheduled to start.

Last Wednesday, about 30 people waited patiently for nearly half an hour after the meeting was supposed to start at 6:30 p.m. before the gavel finally fell. It took 15 minutes before the board told the public it was waiting on one more Board of Adjustment member to arrive because they did not have a quorum.

The Wednesday night meeting was scheduled after the canceled March 27 meeting.

After another board member finally arrived and the meeting started, Jeff Ruggieri, director of Development Services, requested, on behalf of city staff, that the board put the appeal off until the next regularly scheduled meeting April 29 so all parties could be properly notified.

Moving the appeal to a regularly scheduled meeting would also alleviate any perception that things were not being handled right, Ruggieri said.

Once again, the New Bern Board of Adjustment called a special meeting for last Wednesday to hear an appeal about a proposed townhouse development at the corner of Board and East Front streets and failed to carry out the meeting.

The board first set a special meeting March 11 to conduct a public hearing on the appeal and called it off only hours before it was scheduled to start.

Last Wednesday, about 30 people waited patiently for nearly half an hour after the meeting was supposed to start at 6:30 p.m. before the gavel finally fell. It took 15 minutes before the board told the public it was waiting on one more Board of Adjustment member to arrive because they did not have a quorum.

The Wednesday night meeting was scheduled after the canceled March 27 meeting.

After another board member finally arrived and the meeting started, Jeff Ruggieri, director of Development Services, requested, on behalf of city staff, that the board put the appeal off until the next regularly scheduled meeting April 29 so all parties could be properly notified.

Moving the appeal to a regularly scheduled meeting would also alleviate any perception that things were not being handled right, Ruggieri said.

The board unanimously granted the continuance.

The appeal came after a decision by the New Bern Historic Preservation Commission to allow development of four townhouses at the corner of Broad and East Front streets.

A petition with eight signatures was raised to stop the development. But it received final approval from the HPC in January. That decision was appealed to the Board of Adjustment Feb. 25 meeting, which still hasn’t been heard.

The HPC approved a plan last month to allow construction of four two-story town homes over garages at the corner of Broad and East Front streets. The property is about 11,000 square feet, and all of the four townhouses will have a total footprint of 4,000 square feet.

The citizens are appealing the procedures of the HPC.

Eddie Fitzgerald can be reached at 252-635-5675 or at eddie.fitzgerald@newbernsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @staffwriter3.